Pure White Cold Tide: Mental State Trial

The deeper they went into the Ice Domain, the stranger the sky became.

At first, the clouds merely thinned, taking on an unnatural, deathly white hue. Later, even the air became thick and stagnant, as if something were slowly seeping into it.

Killua, walking at the front, was the first to stop.

"Wait."

The silver-haired boy frowned, his nose twitching slightly.

"The air smells different."

"Different?" Gon froze for a moment and sniffed as well. "It doesn't smell like anything..."

"Not a bad smell." Killua's expression grew increasingly grave. "It's... the smell of nothing."

"The wind has stopped, and so have the sounds."

Only then did everyone realize it.

Indeed.

The freezing wind that had howled in their ears moments ago had stopped at some point. The rustle of ice chips striking the ground, the sharp cracks of distant ice splitting apart—all of it had vanished. The entire world was terrifyingly quiet, as though something had covered their ears.

Kurapika suddenly looked up.

The sky overhead had completely turned pure white.

It was not cloud.

It was not fog.

It was a deathly white current, flowing like a tide from the distant horizon.

"This is bad." Kurapika's face changed instantly. "It's the Pure White Cold Tide."

"The Pure White Cold Tide?" Leorio swallowed. "What's that?"

"A phenomenon unique to the Ice Domain," Kurapika said rapidly. "It's a hundred times more terrifying than an ordinary cold tide. It doesn't freeze the body—it freezes the mind."

"Anyone engulfed by it will fall into an illusion of their own mind and confront the deepest fears and obsessions in their heart."

"If they can't find their way out—"

He did not finish.

The deathly white tide had already arrived.

Like a white wall pushed across the horizon, it swept over them without a sound.